By DAVE YATES
Canandaigua junior Matt Vierhile had just hauled in a short touchdown pass from Jack Johnston in the fourth quarter to pull the Braves even at 21 with Eastridge. Who could have guessed that just moments later his most important touch of the night would come off his foot?
Vierhile’s kickoff following that TD rolled to the five yard line where CA recovered. That led to a field goal by Vierhile to give them a lead they would never lose as they raised their record to 3-0 with a 31-21 win.
It was the Lancers getting on the board first thanks to a big play in the opening quarter. Sher’ron Davis connected with Jalen Rose Hannah on a crossing pattern but Hannah took the short toss and did the rest, going 85 yards to put Eastridge up 7-0.
Early in the second quarter CA tied it up when Johnston hooked up with a wide open Mitchell Pfeiffer for 41 yards down the left sideline.
It stayed that way until the closing moments of the half. On fourth and goal one with 30 seconds to go Zachary Wantuck bulled his way in to put the Braves up 14-7
The second half had one of the strangest starts ever. CA’s first play from scrimmage was a lateral that ended up on the ground and then was recovered by Eastridge. It looked like the Lancers were in business, but their first play from scrimmage was also a backwards pass. The Braves recovered to end that threat.
Later in the third the Lancers defense would come up again-this time with a fourth down stop. That started a drive that would take them inside the Braves 20. Facing a fourth and six Davis dumped it off to Matthew Brantley who got to the pylon and went over two tacklers to even the game at 14.
In the fourth quarter the Lancers got the lead back, this time courtesy of a 43 yard run by Hannah, spinning through a couple of tacklers before winning the race to the end zone.
But after that is was all Braves, including a short tounchdown run from Brenden Shay to close out the scoring.
Eastridge falls to 1-2 with the loss and heads to Penfield next week. Canandaigua puts their undefeated record on the line when they host 2-1 Webster Thomas.
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